Help me resolve an argument.

This is what happens when you die:
For starters, it's not painful at all. Seriously, you don't feel a thing. To be honest, it's all over in the blink of an eye. One second, you're on your knees, staring down the barrel of a nine-millimeter while crying like a scared little girl. The next, you're looking up at the night sky with a bleeding hole in your head, and a sudden peacefulness about you; like you're floating on a cloud in your own little world where nothing can touch you. Then, before you know it, everything just kind of... slips away into nothingness, like going to sleep.

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In the above clip, my friend says the semi doesn't fit where it is. I say it does because it's a stop, but not a full stop, and the second part is a continuation of the first sentence's idea. So.. who's right?

Even though I can't offer you an exact answer backed up by English punctuation rules, I would personally not use the semicolon. I think a hyphen would be better in this situation. But undoubtedly someone will prove me wrong!

This is what happens when you die:
For starters, it's not painful at all. Seriously, you don't feel a thing. To be honest, it's all over in the blink of an eye. One second, you're on your knees, staring down the barrel of a nine-millimeter; crying like a scared little girl. The next, you're looking up at the night sky with a bleeding hole in your head, feeling very... peaceful - like you're floating on a cloud in your own little world where nothing can touch you. Then, before you know it, everything just kind of... slips away into nothingness, almost as if you've gone to sleep.

as a professional editor of many decades' standing, i agree a comma is the only correct mark there...

as for the suggestion to use a 'hyphen' that would be totally incorrect, as hyphens are used only for hyphenated words and words broken at the end of line...

if you are mistakenly calling an 'em dash' a hyphen, while the writer might choose to use an em dash there, as an exercise of author's styling rights, a comma is still the most appropriate mark, imo...